Havannah

   

The connection game Havannah is very similar to hex, it's also played on a hexagonal board, however the board is bigger and "6-sided", with sides typically beeing 10 cells wide. The goal is basically to connect 3 sides.

http://www.mindsports.net/Arena/Havannah/pics/HavannahBoard.GIF

Rules

The game starts on an empty board. Players move in turn to place one stone on an empty cell.

The game is won by the first player to complete a ring or a bridge or a fork. All of these are 'chains': closed connections of one color.

Strategy

Havannah is a strategic game. Not very much is currently known about the best strategy (compared to go). Some tactical structures are similar to hex.


"Unprogrammable"...

...for the same reason as go: missing intuition especially during the first moves, to recognize influence & the direction of play; the unability to understand the meaning of a move and to see the strategic value of moves beyond the tactical horizon.

... the Challenge

"The inventor has, in the summer 2002 issue of Abstract Games, put a $1000 prize money on a program that can beat him one out of ten (!!) games within the next decade."


Similarity of connection games to go

One aspect of go is staying connected & to connect (during running/pushing fight, invading territory+break out). Whereas in go connecting is not the goal of game, just a means, in connection games it is the only goal.

You can also recognize virtual connections in a game of go, and during a practical game you often will have to check if they are really ones and can't be broken.


Other Links


See also

Other Games Considered Unprogrammable
Connecting Techniques (in Go)
Connection Games


How to Play (1) (offline-play)

[ext] http://www.mindsports.net/Arena/Havannah/ excellent site; Tutorials+Server for Playing ("offline play")

How to Play (2) ("online") -- SERVER IS DOWN

(STATUS: Did work, but now the server seems to be down.)
[ext] http://141.57.11.163/havannah/online/ A simple java applet to play against each other (live) & a simple computer opponent

Both players have to press "Spiel starten" about at the same time (during 60 seconds). Wait a short moment. If it doesn't work reload the page containing the applet within the browser!

To arrange a game, use public chat on [ext] http://www.k2z.org (twixt-server) or [ext] http://www.kurnik.pl/en (room hex) (I'm xurux!!)


This is a copy of the living page "Havannah" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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